Trypanosoma gambiense (sleeping sickness)

[ImperatorRex]

When I bought an old second hand Zeiss microscope, I also got some old ZEISS specimen slides.
Photo below was taken from the "ZEISS Specimen Pr2301":



Some interesting information about the sleeping sickness provided by WHO:

http://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sh ... -sickness)

[charlie g]

Great stains, great colors, ImperatorR. That slide sure deserves your oil-immersion objective for those formidable enemies of mankind. Just be careful with your tight working distance..this slide is very significant for what it depicts. thanks, Charlie guevara

[MicroBob]

A member of our MIKRO Hamburg group had a look at the original slides of Robert Koch a couple of years ago. They are still stored in the Chariteé hospital in Berlin. They were actually stuck together in a quite sloppy way. Since then Robert Koch is the one I think of when I try to make a halfway nice slide and it turns out worse then I would have liked.
At the meeting around this presentation we had a look at several disease slides borrowed from the Robert Nocht Intitute / Tropical Hospital here.

[ImperatorRex]

Yes Charlie, I was carrying the big gun - Planapo 63/1,4. I use it hardly, but if so, I use it carefully!

A member of our MIKRO Hamburg group had a look at the original slides of Robert Koch a couple of years ago. They are still stored in the Chariteé hospital in Berlin. They were actually stuck together in a quite sloppy way. Since then Robert Koch is the one I think of when I try to make a halfway nice slide and it turns out worse then I would have liked.
At the meeting around this presentation we had a look at several disease slides borrowed from the Robert Nocht Intitute / Tropical Hospital here.

Wow, Robert Kochs slides...that must be a very special moment! It is unbelivable what those researchers achived with their microscopes at that time. I have an old book "Lehrbuch der Protozoenkunde" - Franz Doflein. Aprox 1000 pages with so many great illustrations, also so many Parasitic and pathogenic forms.
I never tried to prepare my own slides, so I have a big respect for anybody who tries to make such.

These pathogenic species are very fascinating, but on the other side I think "poor fellows that got infected and sick".

[desertrat]

I was interested to find out Robert Koch was a pioneer in photomicrography. He published a paper in 1877 with the first photomicrographs of anthrax bacilli. In 1877, he was most likely using the wet plate photographic process. I wonder if the equipment he used has survived in a museum or collection somewhere.

[coominya]

Some interesting information about the sleeping sickness provided by WHO:

Fascinating journey reading about the sickness and Tsetse flies. Thanks for posting IR

[ImperatorRex]

I was interested to find out Robert Koch was a pioneer in photomicrography. He published a paper in 1877 with the first photomicrographs of anthrax bacilli. In 1877, he was most likely using the wet plate photographic process. I wonder if the equipment he used has survived in a museum or collection somewhere.[/img]

I found a very informative page here: http://heureka-stories.de/Erfindungen/1 ... Geschichte
It is written in German but I found that google translator works very well. Here some translations:

"In 1876, after his visit to Breslau, Robert Koch ordered a photomicrograph and a condenser and lighting apparatus from Zeiss. I succeeded, he wrote to Carl Zeiss, in impregnating the bacteria with aniline, which does not change their shape and makes it appear extraordinarily clear."

So it seems he used a devise from Zeiss. I checked some of my books but only found references to Zeiss photomicrograp produced 1885 and later. This seems to be the time where Zeiss started to manufacture in series this kind of devises. Maybe the stuff in 1876 looked similiar? Some photos taken from the book, sorry not really that good quality:








Made some more translation from the webpage above:

"With impatience Robert Koch expected the delivery: When the machine arrived after eleven weeks, the researcher liked "the construction and the work very much". Since he had heard "so much glorious" about the Zeiss lenses, he also ordered a microscope in Jena for his investigations. In February, 1878, he wrote to Carl Zeiss: With the help of this instrument, I have succeeded in making not unimportant discoveries and, to my chief object, making one of the most difficult microscopic objects accessible to further circles through photographic images ... Even in the form of paper prints, my photograms have met with a lot of applause and many praise. In working, I have become convinced that the photographic systems are excellence in your art.

The Zeiss Microscope (here a copy of 1879) was Koch's most important work tool, calculated by Ernst Abbe using the laws of physics of refraction of light, and manufactured to the highest quality by Carl Zeiss.

On these communications Robert Koch received new lens systems. Probably it was already the homogeneous oil immersion. In any case, in September 1878, at the meeting of the German naturalists and doctors in Kassel, the scholar announced how he could master the difficulties with the aid of the new technique: With the Abbeschen Condensor and the oil immersion systems, the situation changed completely. On the specimens, which had previously seen little or no characteristic bacteria, this new procedure showed such a clarity and sharpness of the image that they were easily recognizable and quite distinct from other colored objects in the specimen.

In 1878, Robert Koch had for the first time tested an Abbeys oil immersion microscope and was convinced of the tremendous progress he had made in Carl Zeiss' optical workshop under Professor Abbe's brilliant advisory board. Since this time, the researchers preferred the Zeisss microscopes, and there is little doubt that he discovered the tubercle bacilli in 1882 as the causative agent of cholera in 1883 with Zeiss microscopes (see also the link "The modern optics"). Already in 1847, the Prussian medicine Pabst Rudolf Virchow said: The microscope in the hand of the researcher will penetrate the darkness and become a weapon in defense of life."

[desertrat]

Jochen, many thanks for the scanned images and translations!

I have long been interested in Victorian era scientific apparatus, but my budget only allows me to buy a few bits and pieces for my collection.

[Nance]

I have an old book "Lehrbuch der Protozoenkunde" - Franz Doflein. Aprox 1000 pages with so many great illustrations, also so many Parasitic and pathogenic forms.
.

Thanks for the lead... I found that book and others of interest in downloadable pdf's here:

https://archive.org/search.php?query=su ... hogenic%22

One is sure to find something of interest in these 5,063 results under "microscopy".
Lots of old books... at a glance...

https://archive.org/search.php?query=su ... roscopy%22

and some works by Robert Koch with photos
https://archive.org/search.php?query=robert%20koch

[MicroBob]

I think it was Roderich Zeiss, the son of Carl Zeiss, who started the development of the photomicrographical instruments. He entered the company in 1876.

This really was a time of quick development. Only a couple of decades before the first micro photo of bacteria it was the end of the scientific career of one (russian?) who mentioned a theory about bacteria causing illnesses. Everybody knew that illnesses are caused by bad fumes!